Call of the Moon
by Wolfen Man Unleashed
Summary: The call of the Moon. A call to life, to enjoyment, to things being as they should be. For Ranma it will be something more than it might appear to others. Rated T for now, dunno later.Fixed some minor things with chapter 1.


A friend of mine pointed out some minor mistakes in spelling, so I did a quick recheck of the fic, fixed some misspelled words here, added in some others there to clarify things up a bit and fixed a few gender issues all around. Hey, when you write a scene with 2 sex-changing characters it can end up getting a bit muddled in your head! Just a quick fix-her-upper this time, might actually be posting another chapter next week… And hey! 4 reviews on a single chapter! That's an all-time high for me! Thanks for the comments (even the only a smiley-face one, short but to the point!), they help.

Heh, I kinda write things out first on a notebook and then I type them up. Most of the time things don't look so bad on actual paper… I actually write as a sort of tension release (as well as draw), so I kind of do it for me. I just post 'em up anyway just in case someone finds what I post slightly entertaining. Any criticism is welcome if you want to give it, after all, release or not, self improvement is something I heartily approve of! Oh well, on with the copying of the notebook!

As I write this in my notebook, I'm in its thrall. The call of the moon. I feel it in the air; I feel it in my heart, in my head, even in my veins! It's a rush of life, of expectation, of laughter and beauty. Won't you join in this feeling, let it drown you? Come, come and flow along with me in the call of the moon!

Chapter 1:

Something different…

It had always been a strange feeling for Ranma, one that rarely came, but when it did, it swept everything away. He couldn't remember the first time he felt it… The "call"… At least that's what he called it.

He remembered feeling it as a child. It came sometimes during training, sometimes walking along with his father, fighting with Ryouga and the rest of his classmates for lunch, or when spending time with Ukyo. He also remembered having it during class, while eating something, just walking around by himself (trying to enjoy the peace while it lasted), even when he was trying to fall asleep, IT came. When he wasn't feeling it, but he thought about it, it was hard to describe. Sometimes he blamed it on not paying enough attention in class (never mind that about half the class tended to space out while he was sleeping in the back), sometimes on the feeling itself, never the same, never constant, but still… exhilarating all the same. It felt like… life… freedom and constraint… joy and sadness intermixed… contradictions and similarities, but mostly, it felt RIGHT. The feeling of it all being right with the world, of change in the wind. Heh, as I said, hard to describe, and I doubt sleeping in class was that big a part of it anyway.

His friends- actually let's clarify this a bit further here, with friends he encompassed classmates, rivals, fiancées and any person that just saw him often in one way or another (maybe not the ladle lady though…)- would sometimes be able to tell when he felt this "call", not that they knew what he was feeling. To them he just seemed different, more alive in a way, happier definitively, more at peace with himself at times, and (most usually) weird. Not that they considered him normal by any stretch of the word (more normal than Kuno… maybe, but he still had people fighting him with food and almost killing him! Not natural.), but sometimes he seemed stranger still, weird in a way they could not quite comprehend.

Neither could Ranma, in fact. To him the "call" was a fact of life, one more thing that happened just because it did. It felt as natural as rain falling, or ramen being cooked in the Neko-Haten. Oh, to be sure, he'd started feeling the call lately with more frequency, and with greater intensity, but mostly that had been the norm ever since he had started training with ki and chi. Strangely enough, after learning the Soul of Ice "technique" as part of his training in the Shiryu Shoten Ha he had stopped feeling the "call" for a while… he'd stopped using it and it had returned, so he figured it had to do something with how closed off he was to his environment and his own feelings that had stopped it from taking over him, making him feel, just being there. In this way, the "call" was both something that remained both mysterious and mundane. To Ranma this felt fitting even if a bit contradicting, but that was the way the "call" seemed to be, and so, Ranma never did question it, nor think himself special for feeling it.

It was while fighting Herb, trying to regain his sealed-off manhood by retrieving the Kaisufuu, that he felt it once more. She had chased after Herb and his gang of Musk warriors in their search for the Kaisufuu, hoping to unlock her curse, return to being a boy and then, maybe, make Herb regret locking her in girl-form up in the first place. There had been almost nothing noteworthy of the trek through the mountains while tracking Herb. Well, being attacked by an angry horde of monkeys could be said to be noteworthy by itself, but it hardly could explain why she felt the "call" this time, just another example of a time it came unexpectedly and unexplained.

His opponent was good, in many ways he was better than she was. His ki reserves were greater, he knew a greater amount of techniques that took advantage of this, some even better than those she knew, he was stronger and he could fly! …which he was doing right now… or maybe just hover, whatever, the point was he wasn't as restricted to fighting with respect to the ground as Ranma was. However, his hand to hand skills were lacking (he obviously relied enormously on his –mostly long range- ki techniques), he was slightly slower, and (most importantly to Ranma) he was overconfident, certain that there was nothing that Ranma could do to defeat him. It was damned little, but it was all she would get and it was something she could work with.

Originally she hadn't really cared whether they fought or not, after all, everyone makes mistakes, and if Herb was willing to let her get his rightful form back, then no harm done (so long as they could have some slow-grilled monkey right after that, of course). But it hadn't worked that way, and they were now fighting… and truth be told, Ranma was taking a beating. For every 3 hits she got on Herb, she took one, but every single one threatened to take her breath away or sap the strength from her muscles. Every time she took some distance from Herb to figure things out and take a small breather, Herb would use some extremely overpowered (did he use anything else?) technique to try to knock her out. Two of those had almost succeeded in knocking her out! If not for sheer dumb luck she would most probably have already lost this fight, and Ranma Saotome never loses! Even so, she was starting to despair, her cure to being locked in girl-form was being blocked by this guy (who also happened to turn into a girl… so maybe he should've been a bit more sympathetic) and she couldn't get past him!

That was when she felt it. The air suddenly seemed charged with electricity, the mountain suddenly seemed to be teeming with life all around her, the smell of the surrounding forest enveloped her… she could feel it in her skin. It was a joy, a need, a need to enjoy life, an urge to live and to live well. Her anger, her doubts and despair suddenly seemed like very trivial things, and just like that disappeared. As the call drew her in its embrace, her reason for fighting changed. The cure could wait, teaching this arrogant prince guy not to mess with Ranma Saotome became a thing of the past, and the fight itself was reason enough to fight. It became a celebration of life, an explosion of feeling, an expression of movement, it was a toast to all that is, to what had been and to what will be. It was now.

The suddenness of the change in the beaten down girl seemed to surprise Herb. In an instant that same girl who had barely been able to keep up with his attacks was in his personal space! Almost instantly she threw an open palm strike to his chest, this he barely managed to block, only to feel how his blocking arm was grabbed and used as a lever to slam him into the ground. The follow up, predictably a downward kick, he easily blocked. It came as a small surprise to him to note that the red-head had overextended while trying to kick him into the ground, as this left her off balance for any counterattack he might try. Just as he was preparing to kick the one leg Ranma had still on the ground (and thus make her also fall down, so that HE could take advantage of this and regain the upper hand) he realized Ranma had planned the kick that way. Her right leg, still being held firmly in Herbs block, became her main support, as she proceeded to put all her weight on that one so that she could use her left leg to kick Herb's unprotected face on the side as hard as she could, enough to send him flying a small distance away. As she feel down (her only decent support just having been slammed into a rock a few yards away) and used her arm as a support to set both feet firmly on the ground, Ranma-chan couldn't help but to be thrilled! Herb was indeed a worthy adversary, worthy enough to enjoy and help augment the feelings the call made well inside her. He would easily shake that off, of that she was sure, and then they could restart their violent ballet again, and again, and again, an expression and, indeed, a celebration of life!

She felt him power-up before he even threw the ki-blast. Such an amount of power! Surely Herb must be feeling the call himself as well! Rolling to the right, she decided to answer Herb's ki-shot with her own, a Moko Takebashi Herb didn't dodge (or maybe couldn't dodge? Nah! He must've done it on purpose). Even so, he still got up, and the fight, the glorious fight continued. It was obviously different now; Ranma was like water in a stream, or wind through a forest, fluid movement all about, very hard to catch and unrelenting. She'd hit Herb 7 times before he even managed to tag her, deflected as those hits were. It was he who looked for ways of making some breathing space now. Every time he did try, flying to get some distance between them, or using one of his techniques to get her to back off, she seemed to guess his intent. She'd answer every attempt with a ki-blast, which, weak as they were compared to his own, were still more than sufficient to stagger him enough to allow her to close in on him again. Unlike Ranma he did not despair, he grew angry. At this, they slowly began dancing ever violently in a spiral pattern, Herb being slowly herded by Ranma inward into the spiral.

He was almost too angry to notice, having had noticed it almost as soon as they were in the very center of the spiral. Just before Ranma could properly execute the finishing touch to the move, Herb executed his own. The tornado blasted inwards, winds howling in fury as they shrieked towards the pigtailed fighter. Ranma was punished with all the fury he had hoped (wished, planned, envisioned) of unleashing on Herb! After unleashing such a technique upon Ranma-chan, the one thing Herb was not expecting was for Ranma to walk out of it with a smile. Oh sure, maybe walk out dirty, badly beaten, and hopefully, completely demoralized. But not smiling. Not smiling, even if he did end up dirty and badly beaten. He tried not to let it affect him, and pushed on with the fight. This time, after having had received such a brutal attack, Ranma was losing badly, she was not as nimble as before, she still got past Herb's defense, but did not seem to be able to get away or do enough damage to get away before he could hit her back. This time Herb saw the spiral from the very start.

Hoping to hide the fact that he had discovered Saotome's pathetic attempt at beating him using a technique he had already countered once before, he broke the silence that had reigned the fight since the last mini-tornado. "Give up pathetic girl! I'm growing tired of this game! If you give up now I promise not to deliver too harsh a punishment this time. Don't and I will probably kill you where you stand." Step, step.

With eyes full of mirth and a grin plastered on her face, the red head answered, "Hehe, you know, that's quite the offer! I never had one of my rivals give me such an offer before in my regular fights and spars! I 'preciate it, but you **know** I have ta refuse!" Step, step, step. Ever closer they dance to the center of the spiral, to the end of the fight.

Herb decided to help power up a bit more the technique; he started throwing hotter and hotter ki into his aura as if enraged. Needing to hide the fact that he wasn't, Herb decided to further distract his opponent, as well as satisfy a bit his curiosity, by asking him, "Why do you reject my offer fool? Do you take me for a psychic to say that I **know** you must refuse my offer?" Step, step. They were almost there by now.

Still smiling, as if amused by an inner joke, an almost elated Ranma replied to this, "Don't deny it! You've felt it! I know you have! The energy that's in the air! That tingling feeling under your skin! The joy! The life! It's the call! Old Mother is calling!" Ranma didn't understand what she meant by "Old Mother", but it felt right somehow. Step, step.

As it was, Ranma wasn't the only one puzzled by his statements. Herb too was thinking about them. The joy? The life? What was this about a call? And "Old Mother"? That name was almost never used now-a-days. But then… there was a legend telling of a call, wasn't there? A legend, a myth, not something a sensible person would think of… but… if what the red head said was true… then SHE-

Step.

Herb missed it. So focused on figuring Ranma's statements that he missed it, the moment he had been looking for as soon as he saw the spiral pattern. They had reached it, the end of the spiral, the center. The eye of the storm. As it was, he also missed the fist coming his way. The tornado hit him from every direction, as winds he had willingly helped to create, and make stronger, viciously tried to tear into him. The terrain, already weakened from their fights and the constant techniques they had used in it, crumbled beneath their feet. Ranma fell, but Herb got the worst of it. Already airborne by the winds now assaulting him (which he was trying to minimize using his own ki), he could do nothing as the rocks that had the ground on which they fought flew towards him, slamming into him over and over as they were tossed around inside the tornado. He lost consciousness mere moments before the tornado died off, falling through the hole were the ground used to be, following after Ranma, to the despairing eyes of all who watched the fight.

Later in the evening, a male Ranma walked to the Musk encampment, Prince Herb held on one side, Kaisufuu firmly held on the other. Walking up to the fire he gently placed Herb face up. Addressing both Mint and Lime he said, "When he wakes up tell him… tell him that if he ever wants a rematch, I'll be glad ta give him one. But tell him he needs to lighten up a bit, if the call should teach one anything it should be that, that he needs ta enjoy life a bit more." At this he started to walk away, only turning his head slightly to add this parting remark, "Oh, and I'll be keeping the Kaisufuu, I think I've earned it after all this… see ya!"

Leaving the pair of speechless Musk warriors to look after their prince, he headed back towards his friends. He wondered how anyone after feeling the call (and Herb must've felt it more strongly if it did have something to do with ki) could be so… strange. He wondered about the call, if everyone felt it like he did or if, maybe, it differed from person to person. He walked on and tried to decipher its secrets.

End Chapter 1

So that's that. This has been a story I've felt the need to write for a long time now. The basic premise has changed over time, the characters changing as I have through time (sometimes I think most characters in a story are mere refractions of dreams, hopes and fears of the author). I kinda know where this fic wants to go (the fic writes itself out, I'm just the flawed medium it goes through!), I'm just not sure if I'll be able to write it all, lack of time tends to affect writing time, eh?

You know, I was kinda inspired into coming back into writing (for now, the semester is mostly over and I have time again) with a Ranma fic by seeing Gabriel Blessing's return to fanfictiondom. Good to see (s)he's not in the internet grave I thought him to be! Heh, let's hope the worst thing of him/her coming back from retirement is his/her inspiring a bad author like me back into work. Heh, a bad author telling stories, good ones I hope, but still I feel they are badly told… even so, the moon calls and so the story must flow, I just hope you enjoyed the show!

Later y'all!

Wolfen Man Unleashed

Because, after all, what is a story without the name (real or otherwise) of the writer to whom we associate all blame and little of the credit for those things we read to amuse, confuse, educate and/or entertain us? An incomplete work is what I feel it to be.


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